1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing notification to an end user of a new message from a call center agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exist different types of conventional systems for providing on-line help to computer users. For example, when a user experiences a problem with his or her computer, the user may telephone a designated number (e.g., 1-888- . . . ) in order to obtain assistance from a computer expert. The computer expert is typically physically located at a Support Site, whereby other computer experts are also physically located at the same Support Site in order to be able to assist more than one customer at the same time. The assistance provided may be a free service, or there may be a fee required. Typically, whether the assistance is free or not depends on whether the telephone call by the user is made during the warranty period (e.g., within three months of the purchase date of the computer).
When the user calls the designated telephone number to obtain assistance from a computer expert, the user is provided assistance from the computer expert in order to correct the problem with the user's computer. The user typically may have to wait on the telephone line for a period of time, while the computer expert researches the computer problem described by the user and develops possible solutions to that problem. The computer expert may review manuals that describe various computer problems and possible solutions to those problems, and/or the computer expert may query other computer experts at the Support Site for their advice in solving the problem.
There also exist conventional systems for providing on-line support to an end user. For example, if an end user is experiencing a problem with his or her computer, such as a problem with his or her Hewlett-Packard HP Vectra™ computer, the end user has the option to contact an HP Support Specialist by way of an Internet connection. Such an Internet connection may be provided by using software tools produced by Motive Communications, Incorporated. One such software tool is called ServiceNet, which is designed around a self-help paradigm in which a person using a desktop computer notices a problem and then manually opens a “trouble ticket” that is transmitted to a support provider.
In one implementation of ServiceNet, when a user of a personal computer (PC) detects a problem, the user clicks on a “service” icon (on the user's desktop or within an application, for example) that causes a web browser to bring up a web-based user interface that provides the user with a form into which the user may enter a description of the problem. This forms the “trouble ticket” described previously. The PC operator uses a web interface to report the problem to a program called Chorus Client, which is an incident escalator. The incident escalator first may try to run prewritten diagnostic scripts or provide “self-help” tools. It may then “isolate” the incident, running scripts to gather configuration data, and then combining the user's problem description and the configuration data with contact information identifying the user of the computer and including such things as name, e-mail address, and telephone number. It may also gather host information from the PC. These are transmitted to an incident receiver which parses the information and passes it on to a central analysis server. At the central analysis server, a program called Duet, in combination with a program called Insight, enables the provision of “online” assistance by a service engineer to review the problem in the context of the user's computer as configured and to provide assistance. Each separate incident report is assigned a case number, and there may be many different case numbers being acted on by one or more service engineers-at the same time.
Preferably, the end user who submitted the “trouble ticket” via an Internet browser still has that Internet session open, whereby any messages from the service engineer assigned to help the end user solve the problem will appear on a “window” on the user's computer that is assigned to the “open” Internet browser. When a message from the service engineer appears on the corresponding browser window on the end user's computer, the end user can then attempt to fix the problem by way of the instructions provided in the message.
However, if the end user is now occupied by a different task after having submitted the “trouble ticket”, there is a possibility that the end user may not know that a message from the service engineer has arrived. This would happen if the end user has closed the browser window that was used to contact the service engineer and to establish and maintain the on-line session.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a way to notify the end user of a message from a service engineer assigned to help the end user solve his or her problem, without unnecessarily using up computer network resources.